Jacob looked at the empty hallway, attempting to suppress his fear. His heart pounded in his chest, his breath was ragged, and he struggled to surpress a nervous bout of nausea that was rising in him. Only seconds ago the rest of the tour group had crowded behind him as they slowly made their way down the passageway, terrified of the ghosts which might appear. Now, he stood in front of the door alone.
“Hello?” Jacob peered into the dim corridor, searching the outline of the door for a glimpse of his missing companions “Grandpa? Stan? Veronica? Where did you go?”
A light wind blew from the other end of the hallway, gently pushing him towards they door that was now to his back. Whispering filled the air, the breeze tugging gently at his clothing.
“You have begun to have faith in the cards.” Rama’s voice lightly echoed around the hallway, somehow sounding as if it came from everywhere and nowhere at once.
“What have you done with the rest of them?” Jacob stepped away from the door, calling out to the corridor. The encounter was eerily similar to the second encounter he had with the Order of Aman’thea in the alleys, a fact he heavily doubted was a coincidence “Where is my Grandfather?”
“An excellent question.” The directionless voice of Rama chuckled ominously around him, echoing with a strange unworldly reverb. Here’s a better question:”
The door opened behind Jacob and he jumped slightly. He whirled around and saw only a blinding light beyond it, flooding the space with its glow.
“Do the cards have faith in you?” Rama’s presence appeared behind Jacob, but before he could turn he felt himself getting shoved forward. He stumbled as he was pushed, squinting as he fell into the brilliant doorway of light.
*****
The world was in monochrome. Behind Jacob there was a scraping sound; he looked, and a massive stone entryway had just sealed behind him. The light faded, and he could see.
He was on a beach, next to a desert. The sand under his feet was cool, leading out to a foggy sea. The air was salty, and filled with the sound of thunderous waves. Jacob glanced behind him again. The stone entryway was set into a large rocky outcropping. He slammed on the entryway. Called out to Rama. It didn’t open.
Jacob turned back to the beach. The fog made the ocean almost invisible. All he could see of the water was the waves. Everything was cold. The air, the fog, the sand. Jacob looked down at himself and saw he was dressed in what appeared to be ceremonial robes. They glimmered and glinted in metallic thread, though what color they were was a mystery. Everything was in monochrome.
The breeze kicked up again. It was pulling Jacob to his right. He looked down the beach and saw a priest standing in the mist. The priest was looking at him. Waiting for him. Jacob followed the breeze towards the priest, who nodded with respect as he approached. The priest said words in a language Jacob didn’t understand, made even more unintelligible by the man’s thick accent. Underneath the robes the priest was largely unidentifiable, the only thing showing being their eyes. The priest nodded again, and began walking away. Jacob followed. None of this could be real. It was a test by Rama, to see if ‘the cards had faith in him’. He wasn’t carrying any cards. Neither was the priest. The priest instead carried a large staff.
They walked on the beach, the Priest and Jacob, traveling until a large structure appeared out of the mist. It emerged suddenly; looming above the two of them in the cold fog as if it had apparated from nothing. Jacob paused in awe at the structure. It was massive; built of stones bigger than he was, rising high into the air. It wasn’t quite a pyramid, rising in steps but still vaguely rectangular. It had hundreds of stone steps climbing up to each level, rising high into the sky beyond what the fog would let him see.
The structure was a Ziggurat, already ancient by the time he was looking at it. He and the priest were the only ones present to view it, but it wasn’t a ruin. This building wasn’t heavily used, but it wasn’t lost to time. Somehow Jacob knew the temple was intentionally empty. The priests needed it to be. He didn’t know how he knew. He just knew.
The priest walked next to one of the massive stone staircases. They waited at the foot of it, and Jacob wondered if they were going to climb all the way to the top. All the way to a level he couldn’t see, lost amongst the fog. The priest spoke in the foreign language, and waited for Jacob. Jacob couldn’t understand what they said. It seemed urgent. Important. Jacob had traveled a long way to get there, for the sole purpose of seeing what the priest had to show him. Once more he didn’t understand how he knew; he just did.
Jacob looked down, and joined the priest by the stairs. The priest nodded, and fit their staff into a small hole in the bottom-most stair. The priest began chanting quietly, closing their eyes, focusing. Jacob was silent. What was happening was important. It was dangerous to interrupt. It would alter the magic. Change the incantation. Things could go horribly wrong.
The Priest opened their eyes and gestured at the stairs suddenly. Jacob took a step back in surprise. The ground rumbled, and the priest stared intently at the stairs. Intently at the stone. They didn’t blink. They didn’t move a muscle. Their hand was still outstretched where it had gestured at the stairway, frozen in place.
A section of the great stone stairway began to sink. It slowly descended into the earth, one step at a time, making a new stairway down. The space beneath was dim, but not light-less. The stairs stopped moving and looked at Jacob expectantly. They would not be going any further. Jacob needed to go down the stairs alone.
Jacob slowly began walking down the stairs, descending into the dim light below. The fog seemed to follow him; it nipped at his heels, dancing around his steps. It stopped when he reached the bottom, lightly coating the way down in a layer of mist. The ground rumbled, the temple shook, and Jacob glanced behind him to see the stairs raising once more. He would have to find his own way out of the Ziggurat, and back to the door he had come from. After his test. After Rama was done testing him. If she ever planned to be done testing him.
The space beneath the Ziggurat was brighter than he expected. Beams of light bounced off of mirrors inside of carved windows; tunnels cut into the stone that led into the outside. The light was bounced to the ceiling, where a configuration of mirrors redirected it to hit the top of the walls of the room. Thin amounts of the mist had flowed into the room, which the light pierced through like blades. It wasn’t as bright as outside, but it wasn’t dark.
The room was large, and covered with paint. Every wall had a combination of light blues, reds, and yellows, all which formed symbols and stories. Several columns were spaced around the room, holding up the ceiling. The columns were also painted, and between them was a variety of statues of creatures. The Golum of Aratus. Carnivorous Island Potato. Major Water Lord Labubuan. They all had statues. They were all from his deck. It felt like a shrine to the cards he carried; the majority of his deck stood around him in painted statues. They were silent. The room was silent. Nothing besides him moved or spoke.
Jacob wandered slowly through the space, which was a moderately large one. It didn’t stretch to immense scale like the rooms of the factory, but it still left him in awe. The room was a massive achievement; it would change archaeology if ever it was discovered. Jacob had a suspicion it wouldn’t be. He wasn’t just in another time, but another place as well. Another realm where the cards had always been present, where their creatures had always been known.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He reached the edge of the room, and a corridor awaited him. The series of light and mirrors continued above his head, zigzagging down the passageway to illuminate it. The Ziggurat was a marvel of human engineering; built in worship to something inhuman. The paintings that ran along the wall continued down the hallway; gods, creatures and men depicted in blues and reds. Scenes of battle, conquest, warfare ran its length. Great clashes with ancient monstrosities; cities being burned and destroyed. Men fleeing. The creatures devouring them.
Jacob walked down the hallway, looking at the scenes on either side. The paint was fading, and lightly cracked. Small flakes had fallen off in some places. The scenes depicted mythology. The scenes depicted history. That history was slowly cracking away. It would last a few years, before eventually falling prey to the millennia. The greatest enemy to knowledge is time. Eventually it wipes away everything from the past. Jacob was seeing a past from another place, a past that would be forgotten.
The hallway turned right, and Jacob turned with it. Depictions of the creatures he had seen earlier on statues appeared. The mechanical being with six arms, fighting off an entire army. The two headed wolf creature, devouring royals on their thrones. The armored shark, destroying a naval fleet at sea. In the sky above the destruction the token orb watched, arms stretched out to each of the others. Between them flew the Dragon who’s eyes always watched. Its eyes watched Jacob as they passed. They always watched Jacob, no matter where he was.
The hallway turned left, and Jacob found himself in a corridor that led to a dead end. The scenes on the wall were peaceful. A city slowly growing by the sea, conquering the desert. People farming. Royals Ruling. No creatures or monstrosities in sights; no Gods waging war on the world. History was as it had been in Jacob’s world; plain, unadorned with magic or cards. Simpler times of early kingdoms and empires, at the dawn of civilization.
On the wall of the dead end at the end of the hall was a drawing of a ruler upon a throne. It was a woman who looked remarkably like Rama, adorned in fine regalia, with dozens of people bowed before her. The ruler was smiling mischievously; it had to be Rama. This must be Jacob’s test. Whatever mystery he had to solve was in the bejeweled and crumbling painting of Rama. In her right hand she held upright the walking stick she had used throughout the tour, holding it straight next to the throne she sat upon. Her left hand appeared to almost be pressed into the stone. It face Jacob, palm out, fingers outstretched. The image looked almost life like; perfectly detailed in its royal magnificence.
Jacob stood in front of it and frowned. Like the rest of the artwork it was lightly cracked and faded, with a slight chip just above Rama’s forehead. Jacob glanced down the hallway and frowned. The order of the paintings, the normality of this hallway, it was venerating Rama. It was deifying her. Before her hall was chaos and violence. She was surrounded by love and peace. The creatures were gone; history was normal. He looked at the painting of Rama. His frown deepened. It couldn’t be that obvious.
Jacob reached out his hand and placed it on Rama’s. The ground rumbled, and the painting swung outwards away from Jacob. A dark cavern extended out ahead of him, far dimmer than the hallway he was in. The light that bounced off of mirrors along the hall didn’t extend into the cavern, but it wasn’t completely dark. Warm light was somewhere in the dark in front of him - warm in coloration, not in temperature. The air in front of Jacob was cold in a different way than outside; the air was icy cold, but dry as bleached bone.
Jacob stepped forward, and plunged into the dark. The door swung shut behind him, and his eye’s adjusted. Small hovering orbs of light flitted through the air, providing a slight glow. He was in a massive chamber, standing in a small outcropping over a massive subterranean lake. The cave beyond was huge and natural - no human hands had made the space. Massive crystals jutted out of the water, piercing into the dark. They dimly glowed a slightly transparent blue; like quartz but with a gentle light within. They stretched out into the distance until they disappeared, swallowed by the inky black. He could see the outcropping because of the floating orbs. No orbs showed what was beyond.
At the edge of the outcropping a lanky body was strapped to an altar of stone. It was a demon. Just like the ones he had seen cast, just like the creatures he had summoned. Its skin was an inky blue - this was an ocean demon. Around it a semicircle of priests stood chanting. The creature called out as one of them flicked water onto it. Steam rose. Another priest dipped a small bowl into the lack, and flicked more water. More steam. More calls of demonic pain.
Jacob walked up, and a priest nodded at him before continuing. He was allowed in this space. It was important Jacob witness this. It was necessary. He was there to witness this ceremony. This was his purpose in history, to bear witness. To approve.
Jacob looked down at the demon. It snarled. Its eyes were angry and red, and its teeth were razor sharp shark teeth. It was 8 feet tall and thin, just like every demon Jacob had seen. Light seemed to disappear into the figure, forming the robes of black that lay in tattered shape on its body. Light cuts and bruises were all over the deep blue skin, and the demon’s blood appeared as black as oil where it had scabbed over. Somehow the demon seemed familiar, like Jacob had seen it before. It wasn’t identical to those he had cast or faced in person - perhaps in a recorded match? Definitely not in his Academy days, as a matter of principle the National Card Academy didn’t supply Demon Type creatures to Cadets. Some vague policy about publicity and non-positive imagery.
A priest poured a bowl of water onto the demon’s arm. Steam exploded. The skin lightened under the liquid, the blue relaxing. More priests pulled bowls out of their robes. Filled them with cave water. Poured them on the creature. They soaked it, thoroughly drenching it. It’s skin grew mottled, a pattern of dark and light blue. The creature called out in pain. It barely moved. It didn’t have the strength to. Eventually it stopped calling out. It whimpered as the water hit. The priests stopped chanting. Looked at each other and nodded. Looked at Jacob. Uncertain of what to do he needed.
A priest pulled out a knife and Jacob recoiled. They rapidly cut the bonds of the demon. It didn’t run or resist. It had no more fight in it. Several priests picked up the demon, and the entire group moved to the edge of the rocky outcropping. Jacob moved to follow them. When they reached the edge he saw roughly carved stairs leading into the water. The priests carrying the demon walked to Jacob. Other priests raised Jacob's arms. They placed the demon in them, making Jacob carry it like a sleeping child. The demon was surprisingly light. The weight of its sins was mostly gone. Jacob had to wash away the remains. He could feel it in his chest. This was the test. Why he was here. To see if it was possible.
The priests formed two lines on either sides of the first stair. Jacob carried the demon between the lines as they chanted. He walked into the water. It was freezing cold. He kept walking. He walked down the stairs until it reached his chest. The demon whimpered. Jacob didn’t look at it. He submerged the demon in the water like he was performing a baptismal right. The demon twitched lightly in his arms, and Jacob looked down.
Inky black darkness was leeching off the demon’s skin, filling the water like octopus ink. It stayed for a moment, obscuring the perfectly clear liquid, before dissolving away. The demon twitched a few more times violently before suddenly bursting out of the water. It gasped for air and gripped Jacob’s shoulders to help itself stand. It looked down at him. It’s eyes were white and glowing. It’s skin was lightly glowing. It was now a pale blue, with wave patterns on its flesh.
It was the Avenged Water Demon, and it looked down at Jacob in surprise and respect.
“I have been purified.” The Demon’s voice was the same as it would be, so long into the future. Jacob could understand it perfectly. It spoke only to him. “Oh captain, my captain.”
There was a reptilian grumbling from the far end of the cavern. Glowing eyes appeared in the dark. The Dragon that always watches was present. The Avenged Demon rose up and stood between Jacob and the Dragon. Priests threw themselves into the water. The Avenged Demon summoned a spear and threw it into the dark. The Dragon screamed. The priests pulled Jacob out of the water and dragged him backwards, talking frantically. Several sent balls of fire down the cavern, hitting the slowly approaching God. The dragon roared each time it was hit. The ground rumbled. The entrance to the cave opened. The Avenged Demon looked back just as Jacob reached it and gave him a modern salute, then launched another spear into the dark. The dragon roared. There was a higher pitched sound. A glowing appeared towards the end of the cavern. Jacob vaguely saw four shapes behind the dragon. The priests began to yell. They turned Jacob towards the open door and shoved him into the hallway.
*****
Jacob stumbled out of the doorway and directly into the arms of Rama. He was back in the factory.
The dragon was nowhere to be seen.
The God Card Saga is my primary priority right now as an author; none of my other ideas get a significant amount of my time until this story has a backlog established, and is more stable in its releases.
incredibly hard week in my life; I’m facing significant stresses at work, my housing is unstable and may involve legal counsel soon, my home life is unsafe, it’s a rough time. This week, that manifested in me posting no chapters before this one - something I’ve never done before with this story. This was not intentional and the story is not going on Hiatus, I’m just having difficulty juggling everything.
grew by a few followers. I’m in several author discords and am a frequent lurker on the various Royal Road serial fiction subreddits; there’s plenty of horror stories about irreversibly sabotaging your book by missing just one day, drive by 0.5 star ratings, massive amounts of negative comments when life gets stressful - y’all do none of that. Several of y’all comment on every chapter. You answer the polls, you interact, you read the notes, you are all genuinely the best readers an author could ask for. It’s helped keep me writing, even when times are the hardest they’ve been in a long time. Somehow, despite me not being consistent and posting not only has this story managed to hit the Thriller rising stars list, but it’s stayed there the entire time - it was still at 44 when I checked this morning.
thank you all so much for sticking with the story. I’m sorry it’s been so difficult to get chapters out. I promise I’m not abandoning the story or going on hiatus, in fact in my off moments (when I’m not losing my mind with stress) I’ve already begun plotting out in detail books 2 and 3. I have no intention of stopping anytime soon, and look forward to continuing Rama and Jacob’s journey well into the future. As always, if you like the story please follow it, favorite it, leave a comment (I read and appreciate every single one, including the 'thank you for the chapter' ones), rate it, and consider reviewing it. Every form of engagement helps the story grow, and get in front of more potential readers.
terrified of ghosts. He only pretends to be a skeptic.
trust in the cards…
Do you like the writing style of the vision in this chapter?
